I sent the following message about the Stimulus Package to the “Citizen’s Briefing Book” section of the Obama-Biden Change.gov site. I’ll probably send it via a couple of other directions to make sure that it gets incorporated.
With the proposed stimulus package, one goal is to put American’s back to work. But the risk is that we are going to preferentially put undocumented immigrant workers back to work. Based on recent experience we know that, wherever possible, firms will cut that corner.
How are we going to avoid the scandal of this stimulus package becoming a major global attractor of cheap undocumented workers?
You can just imagine the headline; “Massive Stimulus Package is Big Incentive for Major Firms To ‘Mistakenly’ Hire Undocumented Workers! New Workers Flood to the USA From All Over The World.”
I suggest:
1.) Unusually severe penalties for employers that utilize undocumented workers under the stimulus plan, and similar penalties for the administrators responsible for utilizing sub-contractors that hire undocumented workers. Avoid any “plausible deniability”.
2.) To help protect employers and contract administrators, the plan should “encourage” the use of American unions to the greatest extent possible. This is justified because a union roster has been, or can readily be, carefully vetted for undocumented workers. A union provides employers with an intervening point of accountability for preventing a “mistaken” rush to undocumented workers.
It’s not a coincidence that as organized labor has declined, undocumented workers have become the preferred employee. I propose that organized labor is not necessarily part of the problem, but in the case of a massive taxpayer expenditure, can honorably participate in becoming part of the solution.
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